Homemade CinnaBuns- The easy way!

These cinnamon rolls have power behind them – real power. You could pretty much get anything you wanted if you showed up toting a plate of these babies, warm with icing oozing down the side. Regardless of their power, though, I want you to try to use them only for good. Rather than taking over the world (which I am waiting ’til I get both kids in school to do because I just don’t have the time needed to run it until I have at least another hour free each day), you can use them as wonderful gifts of gratitude and tokens of caring. I especially love that I can make these ahead of time and put them in the fridge to pop in the oven first thing in the morning – which makes your gifts of gratitude and tokens of caring all the more easier to provide!

I have been making these for years but only in the past few have I started using the shortcut method. While it’s fun to make the dough from scratch, its much more time consuming and not that easy on your hands (especially if you have arthritis ~raises hand~). Using store bought bread dough as opposed to making your own makes these super easy for anyone, regardless of experience in the kitchen, to turn out these supremely impressive cinnamon rolls.

If you have a loved one who is a devotee of the cinnamon rolls in the mall, expect them to become your number one fan the moment these come out of the oven.

In fact, my husband prefers them!

Of course, since I do have two ways of making these, I’m going to give you my easy way and then my homemade dough recipe at the bottom of the post just in case any of you want to try out that method as well. The tutorial will focus on the easy way, though. Life is complicated enough. 🙂

*Note: I’m using super cheap cinnamon. I paid all of .50 cents for it. You can pay a small fortune for a jar of cinnamon these days but I guess my tastes have never been refined enough to tell the difference.~grins~

Now, my confectioner’s sugar and brown sugar are in little sealed containers. I got tired of dealing with bags and such so I picked those up on my last trip to the grocery store. For those of you who know me and fear I may be ill – because this seems almost organized and that is soooooooooooo unlike me- rest assured this is a random act of organization and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. ~exhales in relief~ Yeah, that kinda scared me for a minute there, too!

This I promise…~stands up and places a hand on her lapel in Abe Lincoln style~

I will always remain true to myself. You have my solemn vow that there will always be several piles of unfolded laundry, a pantry that looks like a tornado hit it most days, and empty coffee cups sitting near my computer along with various other assorted messes not just in one room, but throughout my entire house.

Don’t worry folks, I won’t let ya down!

Get out one loaf of bread dough and sit it on a plate at room temperature to thaw. This will probably take about an hour.

Just go check on it every now and then and poke it a bit to see if it is still frozen in the center. We need it completely thawed because we’re gonna take our rolling pin and put some elbow grease into flattening and stretching that puppy out!

In a small bowl, place brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mix those up.

I used one of Katy Rose’s “golden forks” for this. She was pretty proud of that.

Place your thawed bread on a floured surface.

I always roll out a bit of waxed paper to do this on for easy clean up.

I think more sentences in my life should include the words “Easy” and “clean up” together. Especially this time of year.

~sighs~

Now, putting some elbow grease into this, roll out your dough.

My original recipe called for it to be rolled out to about 16×21 but that was when I was making the dough from scratch. When I use a loaf of dough, I roll it out to about 9×16. It comes out just the same but you just don’t have as many spirals to your cinnamon rolls.

I hope I’m making sense here…been a pretty stressful morning :).

Take half of your stick of melted butter and spread it over your dough.

Sprinkle your brown sugar mixture over it and pat down lightly. I leave a little bit of edge on each side to help it seal when we roll it up.

Carefully begin rolling it all up into a log.

Like this. Press that together just a little bit.

Using a serrated knife (because that is what works best for me, but if you prefer some other type feel free!) cut one inch slices all down your log.

Place the slices in a greased 9×13 pan.

I am using metal but you can use glass if you prefer, whatever you have on hand.

You really can’t mess these up.

Cover with cling wrap and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, which could take anywhere from two to four hours, depending on the temperature.

Sometimes it’s hard to find a warm place in your house in the winter time. In the summer, I go put them in the garage.

In the winter, I dry a load of clothes and set them on top of the washing machine, near the dryer. ~grins~

At this point, you can also put them in the refrigerator and let them rise overnight. They will rise much more slowly in the fridge so get up about an hour before you want to bake them because you may need to sit them on the counter for about an hour to let them finish rising.

Looky there! Isn’t that beautiful? See how easy this is?

Hint: Don’t be going bragging about how easy it is to your family because if they don’t know, you’re pretty much a sure thing for a sainthood nomination when you make these.

Remove cling wrap and bake at 400 for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, back at the Duke place, Boss Hog developed a wild hankerin’ for some cream cheese icing. Being bighearted, Daisy decided to make it for him.

I watched way too much Dukes of Hazzard as a child…

Apparently, Ricky did too because when he saw the General Lee at a mall in Nashville this past weekend he about had a dying duck fit wanting me to take his picture by it.

Where was I? Oh ..yeah…Boss Hog wanted some cream cheese icing..

Place 1/2 brick cream cheese (recipe calls for 3 ounces, half of an eight ounce brick works for me!) and the other half of the stick of margarine in a mixing bowl.

Add confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon

The cinnamon gives your icing a bit of oomph!

Mix that up until smooth and creamy.

Ooooh…all ready!

Now I don’t put icing on mine in the pan, I serve them and let people put their own icing on.

I eat mine without any icing (I know, that is awful! But I can’t have the sugar and I still very much enjoy the cinnamon roll!) and my husband would pretty much put the entire bowl of icing on his if I let him…

Ooooh Lawdy, isn’t that gorgeous? These heat up well, too. I made them last night for dessert and we heated some for breakfast this morning. Delicious!

3 Tablespoon ground cinnamon (Filling)

3 ounce cream cheese, softened (Icing)

¼ Cup butter or margarine, softened (Icing)

1-1/2 Cups confectioner's sugar (Icing)

½ tsp vanilla (optional, I usually just leave it out) (Icing)

Instructions

Place loaf of dough on plate and let sit at room temperature until thawed. Once thawed, roll out onto floured surface to a size of about nine inches by sixteen inches. Spread ¼ C margarine over dough.

In small bowl mix together brown sugar and 3 T cinnamon. Sprinkle over top of cinnamon roll, stopping about ½ an inch away from the sides so it will seal (see photos). Carefully roll up cinnamon roll into a log and press lightly to seal. Slice into one inch slices with serrated knife. Place in greased 9x13 inch pan and cover with cling wrap. Place in warm spot and allow to rise until doubled in size. Remove cling wrap and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, or until done.

Icing: Mix all ingredients together and beat with electric mixer until creamy. Spread over cinnamon rolls.

3.5.3251

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From Scratch Dough

*This dough replaces the frozen loaf of bread dough. Use the rest of the recipe as written above.

1 Cup Lukewarm Milk

2 Large eggs, at room temp

1/3 C unsalted butter or margarine, cut up

4 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 3/4 tsp Salt

1/2 C Sugar

2 1/2 tsp instant or bread machine yeast

Place all of the dough ingredients into the pan of your bread machine in the order listed. Program the machine for dough or manual and press start. After about ten minutes, check the doughs consistency. It should be smooth, not too sticky and not too dry. Adjust it’s consistency with additional flour or water if necessary to allow the machine to complete the kneading.

*If not using a bread machine, combine all of the dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until mixture becomes cohesive. Transfer to lightly oiled work surface and knead by hand for five to eight minutes or until it is smooth. The way I think of smooth is…~looks around to make sure no one is listening~ it needs to be like a baby’s bottom.

Place kneaded dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to grease all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place for one hour, until it is nearly doubled. Transfer to floured work surface and roll into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread with 1/2 stick margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Complete using recipe above.

I just live reading your posts! I have a strong feeling thay we could have one heck of a good time on a big porch with a pitcher of tea or lemonade and maybe a snack for the afternoon. Thanks for whay sounds like another great reciepe!

In the visual instruction you say to add cinnamon to the icing for zing. However, I do not find that measurement…only for the filling. I am waiting for mine to rise right now, so I will add to taste. Just thought you might like to amend the recipe. I made the Easy Orange Rolls earlier, they were a huge hit. Over the weekend, the kids and I made AND canned your Crockpot Apple Butter. It is AAAAAMAZING! Thank you so much for this site, it brings back so many memories of my Great Grandmother and me cooking together.

PLEASE HELP!!! I have tried making these a few times but they have never risen!!! I have put them on the stove top or on the island across from the stove (heated to 200* and door open) but nothing. Is it me or the frozen dough????

Its the Rhoads (sp) frozen bread usually from Walmart but occasionally from Homeland. I attempted the cinnamon rolls again this weekend AND made a loaf of bread just to see if it would rise. It did after several hours but only a few of the cinnamon rolls tried to rise. Could I be overworking the dough when rolling it out? I’d love to make big fluffy cinnamon rolls for the family instead of cinnamon hockey pucks!

Being obsessed with the Dukes is no problem, they were actually mentioned in my Great Aunts Eulogy last week, and she passed away at 95! As were Cheech and Chong, but, that’s a different story. Lol.
Now if only I could channel her to recreate her meatballs! Her secret was mint, apparently not her only secret, I haven’t had meatballs like hers in my life.

My Mom shared this with me to have a warm area to raise dough. Turn on your oven light only and put your bowl of dough to rise in the oven. DO NOT heat the oven. Just use the oven light. Works every time and can be used during summer or winter!

I’ve never actually made these with frozen bread dough, but I make a similar from scratch recipe. I make 2 batches a week or so before Christmas. I roll them out, cut them up, place them in a pan sprayed with no stick spray and then freeze them right then, before they even rise once. I just pop on a lid or foil and stick them in the freezer. Then Christmas eve, I take them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge. On Christmas morning, I get up and turn the oven on to 175* or so and let them rise and fluff up. When they’re the right size (maybe 45 minutes?) I take them out of the oven, preheat the oven, and then bake them like normal. Then on New Year’s eve I do the same thing with the second pan and we have *fresh* cinnamon rolls on New Year’s Day as well.
If I’m baking them the same day I make them, then I turn on the oven for exactly 2 minutes, turn it off and let them rise in the oven. I don’t like things rising on the counters or a cat would probably get into them. 😉
PS-they do look really scrawny and like they will never rise but they always do rise and fill in all the empty places. But that is a from scratch recipe with regular yeast.

Christy, I love the idea of adding cinnamon to the frosting. YUM!
Thanks so much for all your recipes and your inspiring posts.
-Christy (I like your name, lol)

I really goofed. When I got home, I put the bread dough in the fridge, thinking I would put it in the freezer when I was done putting other things away, (I needed to get things off the top of the freezer [we have a chest freezer]. It rose before I got it in the freezer (I guess my brain was in the freezer). Can it still be used? I was going to make it tonight for tomorrow morning.

O.K., I’m lousy at math, but here goes. If you roll out the dough to 16″ long, roll it up then you cut it in 1″ slices, how did you end up with 19 rolls? Is it magic dough??!! Does it lengthen when you roll it out? LOL! Please tell me the secret! Can’t wait to try this. I’ve always been reluctant to wake up at 4:00A.M. to make cinnamon rolls. Well, actually, I never have!! Love that I can start them the night before. Thanks, Christy!

You eyeball the slices so they are not exact one inch. Now, if you want to bring a ruler into play and be very precise you certainly can but I can guarantee that you are going to have a LOT less fun baking. Just take a deep breath, hum a bit while you do it, and cut cut cut. You end up with whatever number you end up with and they will be DELICIOUS 🙂

I have made these a few times with the bread machine. They are fantastic! I am making some now for tomorrow for the morning Bible study club at the high school. Should have cut them a little thinner but still got 20 out of it. The late risers can have a muffin. Lol. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Just something I do to make it easier: I use dental floss to quickly slice them. Works perfectly!